Caterpillar Inc. v. Lewis’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
393 federal appellate · 263 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,547 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Ruhrgas Ag v. Marathon Oil Co. (1999), Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapattah Services, Inc. (2005)
393 federal appellate · 263 district · 15 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1292 · 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (Class Action Fairness Act of 2005) · 28 U.S.C. § 1367 · 28 U.S.C. § 1441 · 28 U.S.C. § 1444 · 28 U.S.C. § 1446 · 28 U.S.C. § 1447 · 28 U.S.C. § 2410
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn · Ohio v. Robinette · United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co.
Cited together with Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain · Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Global Group, L. P. · Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams · Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets · Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1,547 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[R]equiring dismissal after years of litigation would impose unnecessary and wasteful burdens on the parties, judges, and other litigants waiting for judicial attention.”
73 later decisions quote this exact passage“If the case stated by the initial pleading is not removable, a notice of removal may be filed within thirty days after receipt by the defendant, through service or otherwise, of a copy of an amended pleading, motion, order or other paper from which it may first be ascertained that the case is one which is or has become removable ....”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]n any civil action of which the district courts have original jurisdiction founded solely on section 1332 of this title [diversity jurisdiction], the district courts shall not have supplemental jurisdiction under [§ 1367(a) ] over claims by plaintiffs against persons made parties under Rule 14....”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.